Mission

We all sat in recliners as the kid stood in front of everyone and said, "Sir, I'm good to go."

He was about to start but Kristensen interrupted. "No! You should introduce yourself and tell us something about you we don't know."

Patton nods his head and starts off with, "Alright. Petty Officer…"

The second he says that, everyone starts yelling at him, throwing garbage and anything we could find at him. Soon enough, Kristensen stood up and stopped it. "Hey, settle down. Remember what it was like for you."

"…Petty Officer…" he starts again.

The same exact thing happened except nobody stood up for him. But the kid was smiling as he was trying to dodge some of the garbage. We stopped after a minute and he stood there, not knowing what to do at the moment. "Mr. Patton, please."

He then turned around and music starts out of nowhere. He starts dancing around, making up dance moves. He bobs his head backward and forward like he's a fucking Egyptian. He spins himself and makes some kind of pose with his hands in the air and his ass sticking out. I burst out laughing and Danny covers my eyes, not letting me look.

The music stops I hear Mike comment, "Really, really bad."

"Dude, that was traumatizing!" Marcus announces. "Look at what you did to our girl, over there! She has to shield her eyes!"

Everyone laughs and Danny moves his hand from my face and pats me on the back. Axe stands next to Patton and asks, "Can we vote to push him through? Because I can't see that ever again. Hands up!"

Almost everyone in the room raises their hands, agreeing with him. "Push him through!"

"I don't know. Can he say it?" Mike questions.

"Can you say it? Prove it." Marcus joins.

Patton clears his throat and we wait for him to start. He says he can say it but he hasn't. We all wait silently, watching him as he shuffles his feet nervously up front. Marcus shakes his head. "Come on. No more fucking around. Come on."

Patton takes a deep breath and stares at us all for a moment before standing up straight and talks. "Been around the world twice. Talked to everyone once. Seen two whales fuck. Been to three world fairs. I even know a man in Thailand with a wooden cock. I push more peter more sweeter and more computer than any other peter pusher around. I'm a hard-boiled, hairy-chested, rootin' tootin' shootin', parachutin' demolition double cap crimpin' frogman. There ain't nothin' I can't do. No sky too high, no sea too rough, no muff too tough. Been a lot of lessons in my life. Never shoot a large caliber man with a small caliber bullet. Drove all kinds of trucks. 2by's, 4by's, 6by's and those big mother fuckers that bend and go 'Shhh Shhh' when you step on the brakes. Anything in life worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards. I'm a lover, I'm a fighter, I'm a UDT Navy SEAL diver. I'll wine, dine, intertwine, and sneak out the back door when the refueling is done. So if you're feeling froggy, then you better jump, because this frogman's been there, done that and is going back for more. Cheers boys."

We all cheer, clapping for him. That was way better than I expected. I thought the kid was gonna be tripping over his words the whole time, not knowing what to say. Instead, it seemed like he practiced that a hundred times, knowing every word.

Before I knew it, we were all loaded up and in gear, waiting for the helicopters. We all sat around on the cement, waiting when we heard the sound of the routers spinning. We look up and see they are just about to land near us. We hop in the chopper and take our seats. As we were flying to our destination, I got this sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. I almost felt nauseous at the feeling. I had a bad feeling about this mission.

I stare hard at the ground as we were in the air. I couldn't shake the feeling, no matter how hard I tried and what I thought. I was snapped out of my thoughts by something hitting my foot. I look down to see another foot slightly nudging mine. I look to see who it belonged to and saw Marcus across from me, giving me a worried glance.

I shake my head, silently telling him that I didn't want to talk. He leaned forward in his seat. "Something wrong, Chris?"

I shake my head again, not making eye contact. I knew that if I told him, he would just say it was the nerves. I knew something was gonna happen this time and I didn't like it. He looked in my eyes as he grabbed my hands and gave them a gentle squeeze as he whispered, "Hey. Crystal, what's wrong? Are you ok?"

I then look in his eyes and see they are filled with nothing but concern and care. I take a deep breath before answering, "Something's gonna happen. Remember how I always get this feeling when something bad might happen during a mission? I got this feeling right now and its making me feel sick to my stomach."

"What do you think might happen? One of us gets hit?" he asks, taking my fear into account.

"I don't know. I don't wanna think like that but I can't think of anything else that could really go wrong."

"Well…don't worry, alright? We'll look out for each other and we got each other's back. We don't only protect ourselves but we protect the team. Don't forget that."

I smile gratefully at him as he leans back in his seat and rests, just like the others. I stay awake the whole time as the hours went by. I was lost in my thoughts so it seemed the hours went by as minutes. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep even if I tried. There were too many possibilities that could happen during this mission.

Soon enough, it was dark and we were getting ready for the mission. We were counting down the time for us to jump. One by one, each of us slid down the rope and landed safely on the ground. Once we know it's clear, we start walking up the mountain, the mission beginning.

Throughout the whole night, we kept tabs on where we were and communicating with the base. My feet were starting to hurt after the sun had risen. By the time it was noon, my throat was so dry, it began to hurt and the weight on my back was starting to affect my walking. The whole time, we never talked to each other and only focused on the main task at hand but for the first time in hours, I spoke up. "My God, just kill me! I'm dyin' here."

"You givin' us permission to shoot you?" Danny asks, almost excitedly.

"Sure, why not? Load your gun, aim, and shoot me right in the head. That way, you won't need to have me draggin' us behind with my lazy ass." I say sarcastically.

"Shut up, Chris. We're all tired. Just keep movin' or I'll let Danny shoot you." Mike orders.

"Fine. But if anyone is to shoot me, at least let it be Marcus or Axe so then I'll die by gettin' sniped. Quick and painless. That's my ideal way of dyin'."

"Really? You actually thought about your way of dying?" Marcus questions.

"Yeah, haven't you guys? We are in the Navy SEALS, I think we all thought about it at least once. You can't deny it and if you do, then you're lying."

"Alright, then I won't deny it."

I chuckle as I see Axe stop ahead of us. The rest of us were pretty far behind and I saw Axe was in between a clearing of trees, where he could see whatever there was beyond the mountain we were on. "Hey, Axe! What do you see up there?"

"Nature." Was the only response I got.

I rolled my eyes and just as I was about to make a smart remark, Danny beat me to it. "No shit, asshole!"

We stand next to him and I see there is basically nothing but trees and more mountains. I don't spot any kind of camp or village anywhere near us or in any sight. The five of us slowly and carefully descend down the mountain, careful not to make any bad moves by slipping or yelling so there could be an echo.

We go into our positions, separating except I'm with Markus and Mike. I hear Axe doing a radio check through our radio, making sure we are clear. Mike is looking through the binoculars and hands them to Marcus, whispering, "Take a peek."

After a second, Marcus hands them to me, cursing under his breath. "Shit. Can't see half the village."

I look through the binoculars and see there is a village up ahead, at the bottom of the mountain but the trees were covering most of it. "God damn it."

I hand them back to Mike and he looks through them for a moment before putting them down and sighing. Marcus gives him a look, almost taking off his sunglasses. "Find a new spot?"

"Let's try to make that peak." He points over our shoulders and when I turn, I see another mountain, bigger than the one we were already on. "See if that's not better."

"Sounds good." Marcus agrees.

"Yeah, if you wanna die by climbing up Mount Everest. That's what it feels like right now, climbing a hundred miles up." I retort.

"Hey, Chris?" I turn my attention to Mike, wanting to glare at my leader. "Looks like you're getting in that fifty miles you said you didn't want to run."

"Wow, you're funny. That was so good, I almost forgot to laugh."

The boys chuckle as we all group back up and start walking again. We went up the mountain and after another few hours, we got to the top. We got to our position and started to disperse from each other, listening to Mike from our radio. "Marcus, on me. Danny, take our six. Inform command of our new position. Axe, eyes on. Chris, look around the village, see if anyone has weapons and make sure nobody is near us on the mountain."

I look around the village and see a large group of men carrying gun, some of them have knives too. I drop my binoculars and grab my radio to contact Mike. "Shit. Murph, it's like an army down there. They all got guns and knives. It looks like they got ready for us, man."

"I know, we see 'em. Make sure nobody is near us, got it?"

"Copy that."

Just as I was about to take my binoculars out again and search, I heard Mike on the radio again. "Axe, you're on surveillance. Dietz, fall back to OP 2 and get me some fucking comms. Collins, stay on watch, you see anything suspicious, contact us and start heading down to see what it is."

I sigh, leaning against a tree. I look around the mountain and see nothing. All I see is trees and rocks. Everyone in the village is staying in the village. I didn't see anyone outside except the men who had the weapons. Maybe the civilians were scared of them or they were all threatened. I wondered about them when I heard Axe through the radio. "Mikey, I'm good here. I'm going to break down OP 1."

"Copy that. Listen up, if you can, move to high ground and make comms. Marcus, Axe, shut her down. Dietz, you got security. Rest up, gents…and Chris."

I smile as I close my eyes and slouch, finally being able to relax. My peace was interrupted by a noise on the radio. It took me a minute to realize what it was and by that time, I heard Axe on the radio. "Can you get off the radio while you're chewing? You're making me nauseous."

I rolled my eyes at Danny as I heard him. "How did you know it was me? It could've been Chris for all you know."

"Chris isn't as obnoxious and stupid as you, Dietz. It's just a fact, don't cry over it. Also, I didn't specifically say your name, I was just telling whoever was chewing to get off the radio and you're the one who answered, which was a dead giveaway."

"Dude, what the fuck are you even eating?" I ask.

"Chocolate."

"You wanna come over to my station and give me some?"

"No, it's mine, get your own!"

"I don't have any chocolate, dumbass. And in case you didn't notice, we're on a mission so I can't get up, go to the base, and get chocolate." I snap.

"What do you want me do?"

I groan, throwing my head back. "Just save me some, will ya?"

"Fine."

"Thank you!"

I get back into a comfortable position and close my eyes again. I take a deep breath and let it out, relaxing and feeling at peace for once after what felt like days but was actually only hours. I stayed like that for hours, just sitting there and resting, none of us talking or making noises on the radio. I was actually almost asleep when I heard something. Goats.